February 2011

Gameduino: an Arduino game adapter by James Bowman, a Kickstarter project for an Arduino shield with VGA graphics, stereo sound output, and 2D game features. Pledge at $53 to get a board from the first production run, or $113 to get a full package including joystick and Arduino.

MathJax, a JavaScript package for in-browser rendering of mathematical equations from inline LaTeX or MathML source, including support for browsers without native MathML rendering, without server-side graphics generation.

Onion News Network has a full length TV series, apparently airing on IFC for those who still have cable. For the rest of us, it’s on Hulu. Textually dense, fast-paced, and with high production values, just like their online shorts but in 22-minute megadoses.

Everyone else in the coffee shop is pointing a camera at the robot. I ask you, who are the real robots?

Love the side comments in the audio: “Is this some kind of Google thing?” (It isn’t, it’s Anybots.) And: “Only in Mountain View.” Highest rated YouTube comment: “Do you realize what kind of amazing impact this technology will have… on the scone industry?”

Hulu has all 7+ episodes of The Dana Carvey Show. The show originally aired in prime time on ABC in 1996. In addition to being a blast from the past, these shows feature some fantastic work from Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, and some of Carvey’s best work. The influences of Robert Smigel and Louis C.K. are clear, and welcome. At the risk of over-complimenting, it’s like a ’90s Smothers Brothers Show.

Unfortunately, Hulu has become rather aggressive with its interstitial ads of late. Rising cost of content? Trying to differentiate Hulu Plus without eliminating ads for paid subscribers? I don’t know, but it’s clear from this experiment that there’s a line where ads detract too much from the experience. One might argue that broadcast TV has gotten away with 2.5 minutes of ads every 7 minutes for decades, but I’d say that’s exactly what’s wrong with this: the more Hulu is like broadcast or cable TV, the worse it is. Perhaps it was too optimistic to think that Hulu could continue 30 second ad breaks as it grew in popularity. I’m sorry to see that the ad placement in some episodes of the Dana Carvey Show are (accidentally?) over the top.